Mixed Minerals!

A very beautiful example of colorless fluorite on a bit of magnetite matrix.  This one has two main crystals, both sizable, icy looking dodecahedrons siting nicely at the center of their matrix. It can be displayed from multiple angles—I’ve taken pictures from a multiple different sides and you can see what I mean.

A very beautiful example of colorless fluorite on a bit of magnetite matrix.  Like many things from Huanggang, this is somewhat reminiscent of Dal’Negorsk, but with a twist—colorless fluorites are a hallmark of that Russian locality, but you usually see cubes from there, not octahedrons.  This comes from finds made 10-12 years ago at the Huanggang mine.

This one has two main crystals, both sizable, icy looking dodecahedrons siting nicely at the center of their matrix. It can be displayed from multiple angles—I’ve taken pictures from a multiple different sides and you can see what I mean.   

Years ago I bought out a Chinese dealer’s room in Tucson, I put most of the stuff in storage and only just now rediscovered some of it as I was packing for a move—this was one of the nice little surprises, a very pretty group of colorless crystals. About a decade ago, there was a fair amount of this for a while, but it was always tricky to find one that wasn’t broken or with an unsightly contact.   

These days I think many dealers would add an extra digit to the price of this-- especially if the pictures I am seeing from Tucson are anything to judge by.... but 🤷‍♂

A large ludlamite specimen from Brazil, this piece comes from somewhere in the jungle, near the Colombian border.  Specimens from this area have been known for some time, though it was not until about 2 years ago that the locality really stated putting out specimens.  While the bulk of what was recovered was vivianite, there were also relatively smaller quantities of ludlamite collected. They strongly resemble the old 1960’s pieces from Idaho, and after Huanuni, I would probably say these are the second best in the world—while they don’t necessarily have the largest individual crystals, they beat most other localities for richness, especially considering the coverage and size of the better ones. This piece contains a shallow vug that spans the length of the piece, filled with lustrous green crystals. In comparison to what you get from Bolivia, Santa Eulalia, Idaho or Kosovo (you basically have no other options), these offer a lot of bang for the buck!

A particularly good American zeolite specimen, unearthed during construction of the Skookumchuk Dam in Washington State in the late 1960s.  This occurrence is not very well known, but actually produced some of the best American zeolite specimens ever found-- including large mesolite clusters, and particularly well formed analcime crystals—some of the mesolites in particular rival the better ones from India. Collecting was very limited, with almost all specimens having been collected by the project geologists.

This piece is a cluster of stilbite crystals, they could probably hold their own against those from the Deccan, of course from there this would be rather unremarkable, whereas from the USA it is actually somewhat notable. 

A large cabinet specimen of hairy, metallic boulangerite on matrix, from older finds at the Noche Buena Mine. This came from a collection put together mostly in the 80’s and 90’s.

A cluster of octahedral fluorite crystals from finds made 10-12 years ago at the Huanggang mine.  Years ago I bought out a Chinese dealer’s room in Tucson, I put most of the stuff in storage and only just now rediscovered some of it as I was packing for a move—this was one of the nice little surprises, a very pretty group of colorless crystals. About a decade ago, there was a fair amount of this for a while, but it was always tricky to find one that wasn’t broken or with an unsightly contact.

 This one features a large octahedron with beveled edges, sitting atop a cluster of more octahedrons.  Like many things from Huanggang, this is somewhat reminiscent of Dal’Negorsk, but with a twist—colorless fluorites are a hallmark of that Russian locality, but you usually see cubes from there, not octahedrons. 

A very sharp pair of pyrite crystals from Peru.  These have interesting striations on the surfaces, and again are oddly sharp. Contacted on the reverse (as most are...)

A very sharp pair of pyrite crystals from Peru.  These have interesting striations on the surfaces, and again are oddly sharp. Contacted on the reverse (as most are...)

A cabinet sized specimen of “starburst quartz” from the Huanggang Mine. This discovery was notable for these clusters of radiating crystals, most were off matrix and the clusters were not necessarily as pleasantly symmetrical. This specimen has several clusters, nicely arranged on matrix. 

A cabinet sized specimen of “starburst quartz” from the Huanggang Mine. This discovery was notable for these clusters of radiating crystals, most were off matrix and the clusters were not necessarily as pleasantly symmetrical. This specimen has several clusters, nicely arranged on matrix. 

An excellent scheelite specimen for this locality—the majority tend to be half crystals, but this one is mostly complete. Most scheelite specimens that I have seen from this mine tend to be lying flat on a magnetite matrix—that is when you see them on matrix. Most of the time, it seems they have been popped off, and that is why they tend to be halves or have large contacts. This one is unusually complete!

A cluster of octahedral fluorite crystals from finds made 10-12 years ago at the Huanggang mine.  Years ago I bought out a Chinese dealer’s room in Tucson, I put most of the stuff in storage and only just now rediscovered some of it as I was packing for a move—this was one of the nice little surprises, a very pretty group of colorless crystals. About a decade ago, there was a fair amount of this for a while, but it was always tricky to find one that wasn’t broken or with an unsightly contact.  

This one features a cluster of very clean , colorless octahedrons with cubic modifications, arranged quite beautifully.  Like many things from Huanggang, this is somewhat reminiscent of Dal’Negorsk, but with a twist—colorless fluorites are a hallmark of that Russian locality, but you usually see cubes from there, not octahedrons. 

An old German pyromorphite from the Rosenberg Mine.  There are crystals all around the specimen, though one side is slightly more concave so the crystals have been better preserved (many on the opposite side are sheared) This mine operated between 1763 and 1963, and is responsible for producing some of Germany’s best pyromorphites.  When I first started collecting, before the now prolific Chinese finds, your options for a good pyromorphite were basically one from Les Farges, one from Spain, one from Bunker Hill, or you could save up for one of these—even back then they were considered classics and somewhat harder to find!

A nice cabinet specimen of calcite from Pennsylvania, hosting a number of round looking, colorless crystals on matrix. Somewhat unusual locality.

An very unusual, elongated calcite crystal from a find made around 2008 at the Dongpo Orefield in Hunan Province. These are notable for their transparency, as well as the presence of a growth tube running the length of they crystals. Unlike typical stalacitic calcite growths that seem to be composed of many tiny crystals (basically rendering them opaque—think of the Yunnan material) these seem to be single crystals.

An very unusual, elongated calcite crystal from a find made around 2008 at the Dongpo Orefield in Hunan Province. These are notable for their transparency, as well as the presence of a growth tube running the length of they crystals. Unlike typical stalacitic calcite growths that seem to be composed of many tiny crystals (basically rendering them opaque—think of the Yunnan material) these seem to be single crystals.

An very unusual, elongated calcite crystal from a find made around 2008 at the Dongpo Orefield in Hunan Province. These are notable for their transparency, as well as the presence of a growth tube running the length of they crystals. Unlike typical stalacitic calcite growths that seem to be composed of many tiny crystals (basically rendering them opaque—think of the Yunnan material) these seem to be single crystals.

An very unusual, elongated calcite crystal from a find made around 2008 at the Dongpo Orefield in Hunan Province. These are notable for their transparency, as well as the presence of a growth tube running the length of they crystals. Unlike typical stalacitic calcite growths that seem to be composed of many tiny crystals (basically rendering them opaque—think of the Yunnan material) these seem to be single crystals.

This one is a particularly nice, complete example!

An very unusual, elongated calcite crystal from a find made around 2008 at the Dongpo Orefield in Hunan Province. These are notable for their transparency, as well as the presence of a growth tube running the length of they crystals. Unlike typical stalacitic calcite growths that seem to be composed of many tiny crystals (basically rendering them opaque—think of the Yunnan material) these seem to be single crystals.

A cabinet sized specimen from the El Mochito Mine in Honduras. El Mochito has operated since 1948, with these specimens being brought to market around 2009-2010. This one hosts hundreds of small andradite garnets, with interspersed quartz crystals. Some of the quartz crystals have a coating of botryoidal, lightly iridescent hyalite opal.

 You don’t often see mineral specimens from Central America—they’re definitely there but it just seems that most of the mining (typically for precious metals) is done by large foreign companies that allow almost nothing to get out. 

A pretty group of quartz scepters, from finds made around 10-12 years ago at the Huanggang Mine. These crystals displays the lustrous, complex lateral faces that quartz crystals from this mine are known for.

A large plate of purple fluorite crystals from Danville, Kentucky. You see endless fluorite from Illinois, but oddly enough almost nothing from the other side of the border.  This is a particularly large example from an older collection, hosting reasonably large crystals for the locality. 

A very large example of calcite from the Berry Materials Quarry in Indiana.  This is much, much larger than the typical piece-- most have crystals somewhere between 1 and 2 inches. This is admittedly not perfect-- the crystal on the left has a chip on the top, and the luster is both matte  (a negative) and waxy (the normal.) Regardless, It's probably one if the largest pieces I've seen for sale, and the crystals are still quite well formed. 

A nice example of a large, blocky ilvaite crystal from a pocket discovered a couple years ago at the Huanggang Mine. Ilvaite was among the first mineral species from this mine to make it to the market back around 2010, the crystals found at this mine are certainly among the world's best, and redefined the standard for the mineral.  Prior to these discoveries, you basically only saw crystals from Dal'Negorsk or Greece, with specimens from some old localities like the Laxey Mine in Idaho occasionally available. This one has a couple spots of damage mainly on one side, the price takes this into account. 

A group of colorless fluorite octahedrons with beveled edges, nicely arranged on matrix. 

A nice reference sample of perovskite from Russia, this one has multiple lustrous crystals with various levels of completeness frozen in matrix. Not the finest example, but they're getting a little harder to find at reasonable prices, so I figured I'd post it.  

A pretty cluster of acicular scolecite crystals from Washington State. 

I thought these were interesting so I’m posting them—you don’t see a whole lot of American zeolites to begin with, and I would say that most of what you actually do see comes from New Jersey. Washington seems to have loads of potential, only you don’t really see much of anything from there available elsewhere in the country—I get the impression that it’s a little like what Midwestern calcite used to be – a genre of mineral collecting that is mostly the domain of local field collectors.

 This is a pretty good chabazite specimen, with a display face covered in white crystals of the mineral.  I would say that chabazite is one of the few zeolites that India has not produced in such massive abundance that it has made people jaded—you’re actually more likely to see this species from somewhere like Canada or the UK. This one comes from a particularly interesting location-- the person who collected it gave the locality as the I-5. so I'm not sure if this was a road cut or something he discovered just next to it-- either way, it's a very interesting rock!

I thought these were interesting so I’m posting them—you don’t see a whole lot of American zeolites to begin with, and I would say that most of what you actually do see comes from New Jersey. Washington seems to have loads of potential, only you don’t really see much of anything from there available elsewhere in the country—I get the impression that it’s a little like what Midwestern calcite used to be – a genre of mineral collecting that is mostly the domain of local field collectors.

This one is a cluster of radiating scolecite crystals, overgrown with small calcites. The cluster is contacted on the back, and displays from one side. These are collected on old logging roads, according to the collector who found this one, this locality is about one hour's hike from the base of Mount St. Helens

A pretty example of “ruby jack” sphalerite with hoppered galena from a recent find in Jiangxi Province. The individual crystals are not large, but the color is particularly good, especially compared to the average pieces from Shuikoushan. This was my favorite from the group—the combination of the bright, hoppered cubes sitting atop the mound of reddish sphalerites makes this particularly unique—and the combination of red sphalerite with galena is reminiscent of the old Tri-State material, just on crack (or considering those are from Oklahoma, saying “on meth” would probably be more culturally accurate.) 

A pretty example of “ruby jack” sphalerite with hoppered galena from a recent find in Jiangxi Province. The individual crystals are not large, but the color is particularly good, especially compared to the average pieces from Shuikoushan. 

A pretty example of “ruby jack” sphalerite with hoppered galena from a recent find in Jiangxi Province. The individual crystals are not large, but the color is particularly good, especially compared to the average pieces from Shuikoushan. This was my favorite from the group—the combination of the bright, hoppered cubes sitting atop the mound of reddish sphalerites makes this particularly unique—and the combination of red sphalerite with galena is reminiscent of the old Tri-State material, just on crack (or considering those are from Oklahoma, saying “on meth” would probably be more culturally accurate.) 

A pretty example of “ruby jack” sphalerite with hoppered galena from a recent find in Jiangxi Province. The individual crystals are not large, but the color is particularly good, especially compared to the average pieces from Shuikoushan. 

A pretty example of “ruby jack” sphalerite with hoppered galena from a recent find in Jiangxi Province. The individual crystals are not large, but the color is particularly good, especially compared to the average pieces from Shuikoushan.